UPDATE: Frank Luntz has denied that he will meet with Michael Bloomberg. The Wall Street Journal removed the following reference to Luntz from their original report:

advertisement

Mr. Bloomberg is expected to meet with Frank Luntz, the pollster and market researcher, this week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

***

Gun control proponent Michael Bloomberg will reportedly meet with pollster Frank Luntz this week to discuss a possible White House run.

The first CBS New York/AP reports about a possible Bloomberg presidential run began swirling on January 23. The initial reports were bolstered by a January 25 story in which anonymous sources close to Bloomberg claimed he was willing to spend $1 billion in an attempt to win the White House. On February 8 Bloomberg confirmed what the sources had been saying when he told the Financial Times he is weighing “all the options” for a presidential run.

Now The Wall Street Journal(WSJ) reports Bloomberg will meet with Luntz, ostensibly to see how numbers would stack up if he enters the race.

Bloomberg aides say the February 9 New Hampshire wins by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders “boost” the chances that Bloomberg will throw his hat into the ring.

Steven Schmidt–senior adviser to Sen. John McCain during the 2008 campaign–hints the time is right for Bloomberg. Schmidt says the candidate field is “weak” and that “there’s a big opening in the middle of the electorate” that Bloomberg could step through.

But WSJ points out that Bloomberg’s brand is not without its blemishes, and his reputation for being “fiscally conservative” is sitting in the shadow of his outspoken support for myriad new gun controls. After all, Bloomberg-funded gun control groups were at the forefront of the 2014 push for universal background checks in Washington state and his best known gun control group–Everytown for Gun Safety–is bankrolling efforts to place universal background checks on the backs of law-abiding Nevadans now.

If Bloomberg does he enter the race, he apparently plans to run as an Independent.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.